“I should’ve had the locks changed on everything. But her uncle’s the locksmith in town. I didn’t want her family to think I was suggesting she was dangerous. She was already upset that I’d made her sign a prenup before we got married, and she didn’t get half my assets. I was trying to keep the breakup as amicable as I could. So I just insisted she return the key for the house we lived in together.”
“She probably had a copy made of that one, too.”
He wouldn’t put it past her. And yet he’d thought she was as eager to get rid of him as he was her. They’d fought so much during their short marriage; she’d called him names he wouldn’t have called his worst enemy. But considering how she’d behaved since, as if she was hoping to reconcile, maybe she had hung on to various keys.
How many times had she let herself into his house and gone through his things?
He hated to contemplate the answer to that question. “I’m changing the locks.”
“That should solve the problem.” She frowned at the dinner table. “Thank goodness there’ll be no more meals appearing out of nowhere!”
He could tell she was being facetious. But when he looked more closely, he noticed the blush on her cheeks and the glassiness of her eyes and decided she was also a little drunk. “Did you break into the wine?”
“I didn’t think you’d mind, since you promised to bring more. It helps to focus on something other than my own misery.”
“Like alcohol? What happened after I left? Did you hear from Derrick?”
Tears filled her eyes as she shook her head.
“It’s his loss, Lourdes.”
She blinked quickly. “Right. That’s what I’m supposed to tell myself.”
“In this case, I’m convinced it’s true. You seem like a really nice person.”
“So do you. You obviously are a nice person—taking me in.”
“Don’t give me too much credit. I was supposed to have that rental ready for occupancy, wasn’t I?”
She cleared her throat, somehow managing to avert her tears. “You tried. But...tell me this. Do you wish I wasn’t here?”
He remembered how hard he’d searched for a contractor to get the heating unit fixed so she could leave. But it wasn’t because she was bothering him. “Not at all,” he said.
“You’re sure?”
“Positive.” He rested his hands on the back of a kitchen chair. “Did Noelle recognize you when she saw you?”
“Not at first. Eventually.”
“I bet she flipped out.”
“She said she couldn’t wait to tell everyone at work. I guess she’s a server at some honky-tonk where they play my music?”
“Sexy Sadie’s.”
“I asked her not to mention my being in town to anyone.”
“That won’t change anything. I hate to say this, but you should brace yourself. She’ll spread the news all over town.”
Lourdes covered her face, rubbed her eyes and then dropped her hands. “Just what I need. Everyone wants to be gawked at when they’re at their most vulnerable.”
“I won’t let that happen,” he said. “You’ll be fine as long as you’re here.”
“And when I move back to the farmhouse?”
There wasn’t much he’d be able to do then. He’d be her neighbor, but he wouldn’t be next door. “We’ll figure something out.”
Lourdes jerked her head toward the note he’d tossed aside. “What’d you do to help Noelle?”
“Gave her a used water heater.”
“That’s romantic.”
He grinned at her sarcasm. “It wasn’t meant to be.”
“So she believes what she wants to believe.”
“She looks for any reason to bug me. And this has been going on since the divorce. She’ll make a concerted effort, I won’t respond, and she’ll give up. Until she decides to try again. Sometimes I’ll catch a break when she starts seeing someone else. But when the relationship fails—and they always do—she gets lonely, and the next thing I know, she’s set her sights on me all over again.”
“Because there’s no one else in your life,” Lourdes pointed out. “She doesn’t see why it can’t be her, especially since it was before.”
He shrugged. “There’s not much I can do about that.”
“Maybe not. But you could quit giving her things, even water heaters, if you really want her to leave you alone.”